Germany To Create More Opportunities For Indian Skilled Labour, Students: German Foreign Minister

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Wednesday that the German government wants to "create more opportunities for Indian skilled labour and students".

Wadephul's comments come in the backdrop of the Trump administration's crackdown on international students in American universities, besides visa restrictions for foreign nationals. Countries in Europe have been more welcoming of foreign students to their universities, with the EU pushing for easier access to student visas.

With 60,000 students currently in Germany, Indian students make for the largest group of international students in the country.

In a joint press conference with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Wadephul added that many of these students choose to stay back and cater to the urgent need "we have for highly skilled labour which in turn forwards Germany's strategy to source skilled labor from India.

"We already support the area of getting these talents to come to Germany," he stated.

Terming the influx of skilled Indian labour and students a "genuine success story", the minister also explained how Indians in Germany are successful in their jobs and earn more than average income. Wadephul also mentioned that the number for long-term visas issued in India for abroad is only edging upwards.

Although he added that the process of issuing visas must be "digitised" to make them more efficient. Moreover, he said, in order to broaden the success story, more resources should be directed to improving language training. "We are working with a good institute for expanding infrastructure for German language tuition and language exams."

He highlighted that presently, the most important subject matter in the context of India for Germany is to promote German language in Indian schools and increase the number from 58 partners to 1,000 partners.